“Playing Catch” with a young child at an early age is a time-honored tradition. It is good exercise, helps the child to improve coordination, develop an appreciation for sports) and builds a bond between the grown-up and child. To become proficient in the use of a baseball glove takes a lot of perseverance and practice. However, in this age of videogames and the Internet, there are a lot of distractions that might make the child engaged in an old-fashioned game of catch lose interest before long.
What is desired is a tool that can reward young players in honing their skills at throwing and catching beyond just words of encouragement. The tool should not only provide an instant gratification to the young player, but should also be eye-catching to onlookers as well so that they know the young player has made a good catch, even from a distance.
A desired related function is for the tool to act as an attention-grabbing cheering device, such as when it is used by a spectator at a baseball game. The child can bring this device to a professional baseball game and both cheer his team on with lights and sound and also use it to catch a foul ball.
It is also desired that the tool act as a training aid to teach good essential fielding skills. Too often children try to catch a baseball in the webbing of the glove. If the ball is coming towards his or her face, and the child miscalculates the trajectory of the ball, the ball can deflect of the tip of the glove and hit them in the face. This tool should encourage the child to catch the ball in the palm, or the middle of the glove. This not only helps to prevent injury, but it encourages solid baseball fundamentals for later stages of development. Catching a baseball in the palm facilitates quicker transfer to the throwing hand, which is advantageous when turning a double-play, for example.
In order to fully immerse the young player in the game, it is desired that such a tool incorporating these features be made integral with a baseball glove. The tool should help the player develop a love of the sport of baseball, both as a player and as a spectator.
Gloves that provide some audio-visual feedback when a ball is caught are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,033,370 to Reinbold et al. teaches a capacitive force sensor which has a plurality of layers forming a force sensing detector, the detector providing a signal in response to pressure, feedback output in response to the signal from the force sensing detector and a housing for encompassing the force sensing detector and the feedback providing element. A disclosed use of the sensor is to house it in a baseball glove. In the example given, the capacitive force sensor would be housed in a catcher's mitt. In response to the mitt catching a ball, the sensor would trigger a display of the force of the ball or emit a recorded sound. While a display of the speed or force of the ball thrown is useful to an adult or more advanced player, it is not useful or of interest to a younger player just learning to throw and catch consistently. Further, since Reinbold teaches a force sensor that responds to pressure, such an application of a sensor to a baseball glove is only concerned with pitching and the speed of the ball thrown, and not to the training of fielding skills (i.e., how to catch the ball properly). Finally, Reinbold did not disclose or contemplate the use of the glove as a visually appealing attention-grabber.
Another glove that has integrated lighting is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,467 to Tsao. Tsao teaches “an alarming and entertaining glove” with a plurality of illuminators and buzzers mounted on a glove body that is electrically connected to an audio and optical driving circuit secured on the glove body, and at least one trigger switch formed on an inside surface portion of the glove preferably formed on an inside surface portion of any finger sheath and electrically connected to the audio and optical driving circuit. The glove taught is directed for use as a signaling device on bicycles, or as a personal safety device, whereby the wearer can signal a warning by grasping a surface or forming a fist. The teachings of Tsao does not contemplate applying the glove to a baseball glove or other sports equipment whereby the audio/visual signal is activated by an activity other than the wearer closing his hand. A user wearing a baseball glove, of course, cannot really form a fist with that hand.
Another glove that has built-in illumination is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,892,397 B2 to Kurt Allen Raz et al. This patent teaches a glove with integrated illumination, comprising a glove and an electrical circuit that illuminates an illumination device when activated. The glove further comprises a first housing adjacent to the knuckle portion of the glove configured to contain the illuminating device. A second housing adjacent to the back portion of the glove is included and comprises a power source to power the electrical circuit, and a switch that, when activated, activates the electrical circuit, thereby supplying power to the illuminating device. However, the glove taught by this patent is solely directed to the hands-free illumination of a work area, with the light source (such as a LED) acting as spot lighting to concentrate illumination to one area. It does not have any application to a baseball glove, or to a glove that can create an attention-getting light show.
None of the prior art gloves discussed above is suitable for use as a training aid for young players in the game of baseball while also acting as an entertainment device that can produce an attention getting light show.
What is desired, therefore, is a baseball glove that can provide positive feedback and encouragement to a young player.
The glove should be useable as an training and educational aid for catching baseballs.
The glove should be able to produce a light show with integrated illumination means when the wearer is engaged in a game of baseball, and also when the wearer is simply a spectator.
Finally, the device as disclosed should be applicable to other sports equipment such as hockey gloves, baseball bats or golf clubs with only minor modifications by those skilled in the art.